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Chapter 17
Colt
In all the time I’d known Kelli, I’d never once seen her get emotional. Never seen her eyes glaze with tears or her chin so much as tremble. She was so shut up within herself, I was almost certain she was a sociopath at one point.
Now, as I held her so she wouldn’t fall, the sounds tearing from her made me realize she was anything but. She was just better at hiding her feelings than most people. Right then and there, she couldn’t hide them or hold them in any longer. The loss of her mother was tearing her apart, and those sounds coming from her were the worst kind of torture.
I wanted to hold her tight and tell her everything was going to be okay. The first, I was doing and would continue to do for the rest of her life. But the latter wasn’t something anyone could give her. Everything wasn’t okay. She’d just lost her mother, the only person she’d ever loved. A woman I wasn’t sure I liked or respected as a mother, but she was all Kelli had.
And her bastard of a father had taken that mother away from her.
He must have known something like this could happen. He probably had a shit-eating grin on his face right now, rubbing his hands together that he’d gotten the upper hand over his daughter. She’d turned her back on him, and now she was left broken.
Fuck! I wanted to kill him. Wanted to tear him apart piece by piece and lay each limb I tore from his body at Kelli’s feet. I wanted to carve her name into his chest so he and the world would know why I did it. I wanted to destroy everything he held dear and watch him fall to his knees in front of his child, begging for her mercy because only she could absolve him of his sins. Only Kelli could tell me when to stop…
The sounds coming from her only got worse, her shoulders heaving as she sobbed harder and harder. I turned her away from the sight of her mother’s body, tucking her head against my chest as I rocked her against me. I felt powerless, and that feeling wasn’t something I was used to. I needed to take control of this situation, for no other reason than to ensure Kelli w
as okay.
Lifting her into my arms, I kissed her forehead and carried her out of the small morgue. Newton was waiting on the other side of the door, biting her lip nervously as she waited with a husky male nurse and two orderlies who looked almost as anxious as the administrator did. Was she expecting me to cause her physical harm? Most likely, but I had more important things to worry about than her sorry ass.
“Our lawyer will be in touch,” I told her coldly as I walked past the small group, with Kelli still sobbing uncontrollably in my arms.
Out in the parking lot, I placed Kelli in the front seat and secured her seat belt before getting in the driver’s side. I couldn’t drive us back to Creswell Springs with her in this condition. It was too long of a drive for me not to go fucking crazy, unable to console her like I needed to.
I found a decent hotel not far from the nursing home and got us a room. The receptionist kept giving Kelli concerned looks which turned to compassion when I quietly told her Kelli had just lost her mother. That got the woman moving a little faster, and within minutes, I was carrying my girl into our room.
There was a king-sized bed in the middle of the room and a medium-sized television on a cheap TV stand. I laid Kelli down on top of the covers and kissed her cheek as I stepped back. Her sobbing had mercifully stopped, but she was still openly crying, and those damned hiccup sounds coming from her were twisting my insides.
She closed her eyes as she turned onto her side, her back to me. Drawing her knees toward her chest, she wept silently.
Pulling out my phone, I went into the small bathroom and closed the door as I hit Jet’s contact information. After two rings, he answered. “Yeah?” he half growled in my ear.
“The senator is very much aware of what happened to Bubbles last night,” I told him, keeping my voice low so Kelli wouldn’t hear me. “He’s already been working on his revenge.”
“Fuck,” Jet groaned. “What’d he do?”
“Had Kell’s mom moved to a different ward in the nursing home. This one, apparently, with the mentally unstable. She was strangled to death by another patient.” My free hand fisted at the memory of those huge, finger-sized bruises on Leslie Murdock’s delicate throat. She and her daughter looked so much alike that it wouldn’t have taken much to imagine Kelli lying there, cold and motionless in death.
“Hell. Kelli okay? You need anything?”
“I think I got this under control. Just watch Raven and Flick closer. I don’t know how he found out so fast, but I think it’s pretty obvious he knows something. Not sure he will come after Rave and Flick, but he’s already getting back at Kelli.”
Jet exhaled harshly. “Yeah, okay. I’ll let Bash know. We’ll keep them safe. You take care of her. Let me know if you need anything.”
“Yeah. When you see Quinn, tell her I’ll call her later. Kelli needs me right now.”
“I’ll let her know. Stay safe, brother. Call if you need us.”
After hanging up, I wet a washcloth and went back out to check on Kelli. Her eyes were closed, but I could tell by her breathing she wasn’t asleep. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I touched the warm, damp cloth to her face, washing away the tears that were still lingering on her cheeks and lashes.
Her eyes snapped open at the first touch of the cloth, but she didn’t pull away. A frown puckered her brow as she watched me wash her face. When I was done, I tossed the cloth aside and moved to take off her shoes and jeans, making her as comfortable as possible so she could rest a little easier.
When I had her down to her shirt and panties, I tucked her under the covers and lay down beside her on top of the duvet. She moved like her life depended on it, throwing herself against me. One arm went over my stomach, squeezing me closer as she pressed her face into my shoulder.
Cupping the back of her head, I held her against me, trying to absorb her pain but powerless to do so. “I’m so sorry, baby,” I whispered as I kissed the top of her head.
“W-Why am I so upset?” she cried. “She s-s-sucked as a mom most of the time. S-so why does this feel like it-it’s k-killing me?”
